Banjo master says music possibilities limitless
Banjo master Jayme Stone says instrument's sound limitless
by Elizabeth Floyd mair Special to the Times Union
Published 12:02 a.m., Thursday, March 17, 2011

Lush and mysterious are not usually words we associate with banjo. But banjo master and musical instigator Jayme Stone believes there are no limits to what the instrument can do.

On his fourth album, "Room of Wonders," released this week, Stone reinterprets traditional folk dance pieces from around the world -- even French Suite No. 6 by J.S. Bach -- and reworks them into a style that moves among jazz, swing and samba. There are also original pieces composed by Stone and inspired by Brazilian rhythms, Nordic music and a book by Daniyal Mueenuddin titled "In Other Rooms, Other Wonders."

The album was released in late 2010 in Canada -- Stone, 32, is originally from Toronto -- and is up for a Juno Award (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys). This would be his third Juno.

Stone, fiddler Casey Driessen, guitarist Grant Gordy, and bassist Greg Garrison came together for the first time for the album. They will play Saturday at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy.

Stone spoke recently by phone about the new CD.

Q: Banjo -- is it mostly country hoedowns?

A: That still exists. The banjo has a really diverse history. It came over in the 1700s on slave ships from West Africa and then got handed off to curious white folk like myself. That was part of my last album, "Africa to Appalachia," where I was exploring the African roots of the instrument.

Then there was a whole movement of people playing ragtime and light classical music, and banjo became a posh parlor instrument. In the next revival, every Dixieland band had a banjo, because they hadn't invented the electric guitar yet, and the banjo was a nice loud instrument you could plunk chords on.

Then there was Earl Scruggs reinventing the three-finger style on the five-string banjo that became the centerpiece of the bluegrass band. By the time I came along there were such rich traditions that I thought, "Wow, you can do anything!"

Q: I think a lot of people associate Bach with elaborate pipe organ church music. Giving Bach a folk-dance interpretation seems innovative. How did you come to this interpretation?

A: Bach just has such a prolific output. And you're right, his bread was writing church music. But he also wrote all this fantastic instrumental music, and he had his ear to the ground and pulled in all of these influences.

And of course people used to gather and dance on the weekends. He heard all of this music, and like a lot of classical composers, used folk dances as a springboard for his original compositions. Of course his music was concert music; it wasn't music that people were actually dancing to, but those are its roots.

Q: The liner notes list you as arranger of all the traditional songs on the CD, but your publicity materials describe a process of improvisation and collaboration. How did that work? Did you go in to rehearsals with something all written up and say, "Here, play this"?

A: I really like to have both things. There are specific elements in a piece that are to me vital to the piece, and then there's a lot of other stuff I'm fine leaving to chance and that I want the musicians to shape fresh every time.

For example, in the third piece on the CD, "Vinicius," there's an undetermined section, where everybody's improvising and we have no idea, each time we play it, how long it's going to last. Then we turn on a dime and shoot from there into very arranged, structured material.

Elizabeth Floyd Mair is a freelance writer living in Guilderland.